Cedric Adrian Fortescue
In Biggles and the Black Mask, Cedric Adrian Fortescue was an extremely wealthy invalid who took to organising a currency smuggling ring purely for the purposes of amusement. Born into a rich family, Fortescue lived a life of luxury and enjoyed all the recreational pastimes his wealth could afford: horses, yachts, racing cars and even owning a private aeroplane. He studied medicine and qualified as a doctor but never practiced. His life of privilege came to an end, however, during the Second World War. After joining the R.A.F. he was assigned as a bomber pilot and was injured in the spine by a piece of shrapnel. The injury left him paralysed from waist down and in a state of permanent pain which could only be partially remedied by drugs. Seeking escape from boredom and wanting to keep his mind active, he decided to pit his wits against the police by organising some criminal activities. It had to be something relatively harmless and so he thought of smuggling. Being a pilot, he naturally thought of using aircraft, and hence advertised and secured the services of one Roderick Canson, an ex-R.A.F. officer, to manage the operational aspects of his scheme. This ultimately involved running an air charter service under the auspices of a totally legitimate and innocent budget travel agency offering cheap holidays to the French riviera and Switzerland. This gave his aircraft the excuse to fly overseas frequently shuttling genuine holiday makers. Using these flights, Canson would smuggle in counterfeit currency notes from a printer in Nice, France, hiding them in secret compartments cut into the back of the aircraft seats. After Biggles began investigating the activities of Roderick Canson, Fortescue's scheme began to fall apart rapidly. Biggles had sent Ginger in undercover as a holiday maker. When Canson became suspicious of Ginger, he had him kidnapped and brought to Fortescue's country house. Fortescue was upset with Canson for doing this, as abducting police officers was very much further than he intended to go. Nonetheless, the damage had been done. Fortescue then had no choice but to keep Ginger a prisoner in the house. Wanting to satisfy his intellectual curiousity about why his scheme had failed, Fortescue questioned Ginger, setting up the scene melodramatically by wearing a black mask and calling himself Mr X. Ginger naturally refused to tell him what he wanted to know but did insert a hint that Canson had a bad service record in the R.A.F.--a fact which Fortescue did not know and which seemed to upset him. Fortescue sent Canson to see Biggles to deliver a message that Ginger was safe and would be released soon. However Canson played his own game by threatening Biggles to lay off his investigation otherwise Ginger might meet with an "accident". This sealed Fortescue's fate as it determined Biggles to go beyond the limits of legality to rescue Ginger. After Ginger had been freed, Canson escaped to France, leaving Fortescue to face the police on his own. Confronted by Biggles and Gaskin, Fortescue told him his whole story. He stressed that he had meant no harm and, as proof, showed the policemen that the counterfeit currency notes which had been smuggled into Britain were safely locked up in his safe and never circulated. Still curious about how his operation had unraveled so quickly, Biggles told him that perhaps his mistake was in recruiting an unreliable person like Canson. Given his track record, he was certain to attract attention to the scheme. Then again, there was no such thing as a reliable or non-crooked pilot who would have fallen in with his scheme. Knowing that the game was fully played out and not being able to tolerate his pain any further, Fortescue swallowed a fast acting poison and committed suicide before Biggles or Gaskin could stop him. Before he died, Fortescue made one last appeal that his two manservants who had nursed his infirmity be treated with leniency. They did not know the details of his criminal activities. He had asked them to flee for their own safety when the police were closing in but they had refused to do so and had chosen to stay with him. Category:People Category:Biggles characters Category:Air Police era characters